Strip clubs attack exclusion from COVID relief

Trial Notebook

By Steven P. Garmisa

Hoey & Farina

Posted February 22, 2022 11:41 AM

Clothed with the First Amendment, 23 strip clubs persuaded a federal judge in Wisconsin to issue a preliminary injunction that blocked the Small Business Administration from applying a portion of the Paycheck Protection Program that excludes businesses that “present live performances of a prurient sexual nature” from obtaining Covid relief.Reversing, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals explained that Congress didn’t suppress any protected expressive conduct by the plaintiffs; it simply decided “not to subsidize it.”The …

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